Free speech, the President-Elect, and Elli

[Rook Seidhr]

I'm not sure whether to put this in HELP! or On Topic.

The President-Elect of the United States has stated on more than one occasion that he embraces limiting the rights of free speech and due process that currently prevail in this country. Given a House and Senate at least nominally allied with him, and the ability to appoint at least one and as many as three sympathetic Supreme Court justices, it is possible that even past participation in Elliquiy may become a safety hazard for anyone planning to be politically active against the Trump administration.

Vekseid, I ask you to please consider changing the policy on deletion of accounts, and to please also look into what it would take to move Elli to servers located outside the physical jurisdiction of the United States of America.

[Vekseid]

There is no other country in the world, where the freedom of speech is so inviolably protected as it is in the United States.

Whatever bullshit someone spews - both Bushes have spewed it, Bill Clinton spewed it, and now Trump is spewing it - does not magically change that fact. They get their laws smacked down 9-0, sometimes 8-1 if Clarence Thomas is being particularly stupid. If they even manage to get them passed.

If you feel that freedom of speech in the United States is under assault, donate to the ACLU and EFF.

Make it clear to your friends that you consider Trump's statement in this regard offensive. Be ready to support those he goes after if he does so.

There is no country for Elliquiy to run to, if freedom of speech is defeated here.

[Tamhansen]

Actually, to be fair, many European countries have much more lenient laws when it regards free speech, and especially erotic content. Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands are the ones out of the top of my head that would be able to host Elliquiy in its current form. The problem with those countries, is that it might raise your server costs quite a bit, but if worst comes to worst, they are a valid and safe place to go.

After all, even the pirate bay servers are still safely stored in the Netherlands.

My main concern would simply be that it wouldn't be the location of the servers but a forced blocking of the site by ISP's that would be an issue if they wanted to stop sites like Elliquiy.

That being said, I do agree with Vekseid, I don't see a ban coming any time soon. Perhaps if this supermajority were to stay in power for several consecutive terms, like a whole generation, then maybe, maybe they could get it done, but not with the current bench. Not even if they give the 9th seat to the pope would they get enough swing on the supreme court.

[Vekseid]

...Denmark still has blasphemy laws. Along with Sweden, it also has hate speech laws. Which are the worst as knowing what 'hate speech' is can vary from one year to the next.

The Netherlands was one of several countries to object to Article 19. If Elliquiy starts growing again, and websites became a dominant enough medium, will they extend those restrictions to large websites? Where would that line be?

All of this on top of the various regulations I would have to abide by to host a website in the EU.

Seriously... I've looked. The Netherlands and New Zealand are the closest to the US in terms of guaranteeing free speech. Despite this, believe it or not, they do not have the legacy and robustness of the United States in this regard.

[CriminalMindsFan]

Do sites with this sort of content recieve same protection as books and films with the same sort of content within different countries?

My thought on Trump and this site, I think he'd enjoy the stories being he's like Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton when it comes to treatment of women.  LOL

[RedRose]

For what it's worth, I think often Americans don't realize how much free speech they have!
France is all about lawsuits because that one said this, that other one said that... You don't make money with a French lawsuit, but you can get banned or even sent to jail if you keep doing it.

Some things can't be written about the President (I doubt you can get in trouble). There are books you can't sell. Books you can't read (unless you have a reason like writing a thesis, and then there's a list of who asked to read what). Some aren't exactly banned but they made sure it's nowhere to be found. Of course with the internet things are changing.
Apart from that, we're very not politically correct and low key racism and sexism are rampant, go figure.

[The Dark Raven]

That is the beauty of this country (USA), we -do- have free speech as a protected right.

[Drake Valentine]

Very unlikely to happen. The founding fathers made it near impossible for a reason for any amendment to be change and even if it was to be changed, the only way to do so is with a new amendment as no existing amendment can be removed or altered, only 'nullified' by a new amendment corresponding to it.

For an amendment to be proposed or repealed, it requires two/thirds of both federal legislative bodies — House and Senate — to vote in the affirmative (two/thirds in the House, two/thirds in the Senate). It also requires two/thirds of the state legislatures of the 50 states to vote in the affirmative.

In the even of an amendment being repealed, it will remain in the constitution, but with the newest amendment in place nullifying the former one's effect. See the Twenty-First that repealed the Eighteenth.

Similar controversy had rose in past with Second Amendment - Right to Bare Arms, but we saw how easily that fell through.

I seriously doubt there will come any changes in my lifetime; unless on the off chance US is taken over by foreign power.